Basketball Speed Drills for Explosive Power – Part 1

In today’s video blog post, we demonstrate some explosive basketball speed drills to make you a better athlete. Becoming a better athlete will ultimately make you a better basketball player, by developing your athletic skills.

Basketball Speed Drills for Explosive Power

First step explosion. Vertical jump. Better acceleration. Lateral movement quickness. These are all skills that are going to transfer into better basketball. And if you work at this and dedicate yourself, you’re going to become a more explosive basketball player. The speed drills below can help you achieve this!

Step Over Drill

Start with a walk. Pull the toes up toward the shin and pull the foot down and back. Lift the toes just high enough to step over the other ankle. Now begin to jog, using the same motion – toe over ankle. Next, begin to skip. Now we’ve got the two-beat rhythm of a skip as we pull that foot down and back. This teaches that good forceful action of the foot going down and back for speed. Jog back again, stepping over with the toe, and keeping that toe pulled up toward the shin. Again, go to a run, and increase your rhythm, moving faster with the feet. Pull that foot down and back. Keep the hips tall and pull those toes up, stepping over quickly.

Falling Runs

Stand with good posture and suck in your belly button, tucking in your lower back. Stabilize the core and fall forward, exploding into a sprint. You are trying to step down to the ground – that’s the key to acceleration. Put force into the ground to drive your body forward. Don’t reach forward with those big steps. We want to step down quick, pulling the toes up and putting force down to the ground. Down and back is one repetition. Do three repetitions per set and three sets each time you train.

Fast Leg Drill

Beginning Level: It’s 1, 2, 3, up, down. Bounce forward and then lift and cycle the leg. It’s knee up, heel up, toe up. Pull the ground on the bottom stroke. We want to get that leg into a power position, cycle it, and step down. Match the arm action to the leg action, and keep the hips tall with good posture.

Intermediate level: 1, 2, up, down. You’re going to alternate legs. Bounce forward with the left, right, left, right. This is a fast fire drill. Teach the hip to cycle that leg quick and fast. We want to work through a full range of motion to teach all the muscle groups the power and explosiveness we need for great acceleration and speed.

Advanced level: 1, 2, up, down, up, down with the right and then the left. So it’s two fast legs following each other. We alternate that so that we can have the same leg or we can switch and intermix the two. Keep good height, staying tall at the core.

Do these down and back as one repetition. Do each drill three times to make the total for your workout.